Tag Archives: technology

Payson is one of the first cities in the state to enact a local ordinance banning the use of fireworks that will become legal statewide on Dec. 1. Show Low and Queen Creek have also passed bans, and Flagstaff is considering regulation. Yuma is among cities taking a wait-and-see approach.

Although utility deregulation was a colossal failure in California, Libertarian Rick Fowlkes says turning the energy industry over to the free market in Arizona will be his top priority if he is elected to the Corporation Commission this November.

Many deadlines to use stimulus money fall in 2012. That means the next 18 months offer some guaranteed work for construction crews, lower energy bills for some homeowners and perhaps even a benefit for taxpayers as government buildings become more efficient.

The Arizona Mining and Mineral Museum is slated for a complete transformation. Charlie Connell, chairman of a nonprofit group that is dedicated to preserving the museum, says he’s concerned that the role of mining and minerals will be diminished for the next generation of Arizonans.

The candidates hoping to become Arizona’s next mine inspector agree that mining safety for workers and the public needs to be increased. How to accomplish that goal, just like everything else between the candidates, is a matter of debate.

The next Arizona Corporation Commission will determine policies that impact the daily lives of Arizonans perhaps more than most well-known elected offices in the state. Established by the Arizona Constitution, the commission regulates public utilities, corporate filings and securities, and railroad and pipeline safety.

When the slop is the trough all the pigs will be there. And many were there recently at Tom's Restaurant & Tavern for a panel discussion on renewable energy standards, specifically the 15 percent mandate passed by the Arizona Corporation Commission.
Actually, the discussion was more about government subsidies than renewable energy standards; especially with respect to the notion that "everyone knows" these subsidies are needed to promote Arizona's nascent solar industry.

In 1880, two brothers discovered that an electrical current could be produced by applying pressure to some crystals. Maybe Pierre and Jacques Curie thought their discovery would lead to the light switch. But a modern-day speed trap was probably far from their minds.

The first-person shooter animation recreated a showdown at a Sioux Falls, S.D., parking lot. But this was no video game. It was what Hells Angels' Chad Wilson saw when he confronted at least a half-dozen members of a rival motorcycle gang in 2006 and shot five of them with a .40-caliber handgun.